Monday, January 30, 2012

Weekend Visit

Well I'm sitting here at our computer and our house seems so....quiet! I am always sad when our company has to leave. I love having guests. The more the merrier!

This weekend Chad's mom and stepdad, Tom, came into town. Tom was here for a medical conference (although I think he signed up for one in Texas just to have an excuse to see Graham!). We had a lovely weekend. The only downer was that Graham has been sick with bad congestion all weekend. So we kind of ended up staying home most of the time. Friday night we decided to be adventurous and try a new restaurant in Dallas, called Toulouse. It's not really new, just new to us. I've only had french food a couple of times and really enjoyed it! We stayed home almost all day Saturday and Sunday, and loved it. We were really lazy. Sunday night my parents and my brother, Jon, came over and we went to eat at one of our favorite Fort Worth dives, Joe T. Garcia's. It was fun and delicious, as always.

Speaking of brothers: my other brother, Britt, is at HUF right now. What is HUF? Harding University in Florence. I know, you're so jealous right? I know I am. Jon and I both got to experience HUF (me in the spring of 2003) and I'm so glad Britt will too. My grandfather helped to start that program for Harding in the 1980's and the director is a personal friend of our family's. We've known them forever. I'm so proud of Britt and hope he has a wonderful time!

No pics from this weekend, sorry. Graham just wasn't up for it. He is a lot better now but still not fully recovered. Thank you so much, Tom and Paula, for a wonderful visit this weekend.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Milk

One of the things I love about my son is that he still likes to sit in my lap when he wakes up to drink his cup of milk. Twice a day I get to snuggle up with him on the couch and kind of pretend he is still a baby. I love the smell of his little head when he wakes up. I love that he insists on holding the stuffed dog he sleeps with while he sits on my lap. Maybe I am babying him too much, I worry about that from time to time. He is, after all, almost 2 years old (AH!). But then I remember that for the rest of his life he will never again sit in my lap and drink milk and that is sad! So as long as he still wants to, then I do too. Unless, of course, he still wants to when he is like...8 years old. That would be weird.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Peekaboo Video

Here's a short video of Graham and I playing in the bathroom after his bath. He LOVES to stand on his stool and look at himself in the mirror. Please excuse the giant dirty diaper on the counter. I didn't even notice it at the time!

Christmas Morning Video

I am very late in posting this video! This will probably only interest those of you who are family. It's not too terribly interesting (and we all look awful! It was early!). But this is just a short clip of Graham waking up on Christmas and seeing his Christmas table and chairs.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Wow!!!

I was just looking at our Christmas pictures from last year and was astounded at how much Graham has changed! Here is a picture from last Christmas. Graham was 8 months old.
He was just a little baby - not even crawling yet!

And here is this year. 20 months old.
Such a big toddler. These pictures make me so proud, and yet so sad to see how quickly the time passes. I wonder what he'll look like next year???

Recent Activities

The past week or so has been really nice. As much as I enjoyed all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, its nice to get back to doing our normal weekly activities. Some of which include:
  • Bible Class. Graham and I start a new bible class next Tuesday. He will no longer be in the nursery (*tear*) but will be in his own actual class.
  • Play Group. I am SO THANKFUL for my play group and all my stay-at-home mom friends. We have decided to make our get-togethers a weekly event. What would we do without you??
  • Grocery Shopping. I'm trying really hard to plan well so that I only have to do this once a week and then have plenty of food for all 3 of us all week. Its not as easy as it sounds!
  • Speech Therapy. Graham and I both love his therapist. His sessions with her just seem like play time for him.
  • Church/Small Group. We are so blessed to be a part of our church family! We moved from one campus to another closer one about 6 months ago, and soon we'll be starting a new small group with our new campus. Very excited to make some new friends.
There have been some other exciting events around here. On Friday night we drove up to Frisco to see my brother coach his basketball team. He is the freshman team coach. I LOVE basketball (having played in HS) and really enjoyed seeing Jon in action (so proud!). Graham enjoyed playing on his own little jungle-gym - the bleachers. Chad is teaching an evening class at DBU and his first class is tonight. He was off of work yesterday and we went with him to see his classroom - fun!

Here are a few fun pics I took recently when my mom and brother Britt came and spent a day with us. As you can see, Graham likes to play outside, no matter how cold it may be!


Sunday, January 8, 2012

Books lately

I want to try to be better about sharing a bit about all the books I read. In case you don't know, I LOVE to read and read a lot. Here's what I've finished lately:
Catching Fire and Mockingjay are the two sequels to The Hunger Games. They are both very exciting and interesting and they both took me only a few days to read. However, neither one is quite as enthralling as The Hunger Games. Mockingjay did get a little slow at parts. I've heard a lot of people express disappointment in how Mockingjay ended, but I liked the ending and felt very satisfied.

Those two books I read for fun. The next two I read for information (which I don't do often enough). I'm pretty motivated though, because this parenting thing is hard work, I want to do a good job!


The Toddler Transition went along with a parenting class we took at church for parents of children 18-36 mo. This book was full of practical, helpful information. I know I'll be referring to it often! (In case no one's told you - raising and disciplining a toddler is HARD work.)

Bringing up Boys is actually the first book I've read by Dr. Dobson. I can tell he did a lot of research in preparation for this book, it is full of various studies and stats. A lot of them, I think, are there to scare the pants off of parents raising boys, and it works! It brought to mind a lot of things we haven't thought about yet. The book's main focus is in teaching boys how to become successful men through example and instruction. I definitely feel like a better informed parent after reading this!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Beautiful Christmas Gift

Wow! 4 blog posts in 3 days...that must be a record for me!

For Christmas this year, my immediate family and I decided to draw names for gifts so that we wouldn't all have to buy so many. My dad drew my name, and I received this beautiful hand-stamped pendant necklace:















I LOVE IT! I wear it every day. What a sweet, thoughtful gift! It was made by a very dear friend of mine, Karen Baskett. Karen is the wife of my former youth minister Mike Baskett (who married Chad and I SEVEN years ago). Karen is a woman of many talents. Click here to check out her etsy shop: Jewelry By Karen. She has been making jewelry for a long time, and has great taste! Thanks, Karen! Thanks, Dad!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A Boy and His Dog

I always anticipated and expected that Graham would like having a dog and play with her, but I don't know that I expected him to LOVE dogs so much, especially our dog, Razz. They love playing together! On the bed, on the couch, outside, wherever. I love it!



Monday, January 2, 2012

Christmas Cheer

I mentioned in an earlier post that I didn't take many pictures this Christmas. Sometimes you're just having too much fun to remember! I did take some though, mostly Christmas morning. Graham was so excited to get his new table and chairs. He also got a new plate, cup, and utensils which he ate his Christmas breakfast with. He got lots of other new toys that he loves. There are a couple of pics of Graham with Razz. They sure do like hanging out these days! Graham thinks Razz is hilarious. I apologize to family who wasn't with us this Christmas for not taking many pics. We missed you all!








Salt-Dough Handprints

Graham has a friend named Jaxon who is very special to us. He is 6 weeks younger than Graham. Being so close in age, they have a lot in common. Before Christmas, I invited Jaxon and his mommy Tara over to make salt-dough handprints to give away as gifts. The boys had a blast. We pulled chairs up to my island to make their handprints and they really liked standing up tall and playing with the dough. They each got to hold their own spatula and they really liked that too. These 2 are such wonderful friends to us! I think a play dough play date is in order soon, don't you think Tara? :)